I thought I would put a blog together for a couple of reasons. The first is a question if its ok?
As you can see, I have attacked the lineside shed with the weathering powders and things to try and dirty it up a bit and hopefully make it a little more realistic which I have hopefully achieved. The problem now is the signal box looks a little bit too clean in comparison so my question is what do I do now? I could easily weather the signal box to suit but there is a part of me saying it wouldn't be as grotty as the little shed. Has anyone got any advice?
The second reason for this post is to show a couple of pictures of the water feature area to show how much it has progressed since the last post.
I think it looks much better than before so thanks for the comments / advice on the previous blog post. Of course though, comments would be warmly received.
Finally here is another photo for no other reason than I quite like it. I think it gives a nice sense of space (which I am trying to achieve), ignoring that fallen tree in the background of course!
Julia :o)
If both 'box and shed were built at the same time they'd both weather the same. Personally I think that the 'box looks fine but the shed is too grotty, fine for a modern day urban scene but a rather overdone for your rural idyll.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies if that comes across as negative and pedantic, any comments that I make are meant to be constructive!
Paul has a good point, but undoing the dirt on the hut might be difficult, so I'd weather odd bricks very subtly and makes some equally subtle shadows under the 'box eaves and window cills, with the usual mossy dribbles off the ends of the cills and some darker splash areas along the bottoms of the main walls.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the two sages above. The signal box is fantastic and would, I reckon, be subtly weathered as you have it. The hut looks amazing, but the other day I was walking along the trackbed of the old Bala-Blaenau branch at an exposed location and encountered a similar hut which was in much better condition than yours although abandoned for many years! So, lovely models for sure and wonderful, very convincing scenery, but perhaps the hut could be spruced up a bit :-) But remember, it's your trainset and my comments are in no way a criticism of your fine work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all three of the sages above. But I'll add a big caveat. It is hard for us to remember, if we are old enough, or logically figure out, if we are younger, just what the railway scene looked like at a specific location and point in time. To take my beloved Tanat Valley as an example the corrugated iron buildings often appear dilapidated but the brickwork always seems to look so fresh that I don't think it would be believable on a model; I find it hard now to recall just how black buildings were in Manchester and Birmingham when I first knew them, for example. Perhaps we over weather buildings and wagons because we have a false impression of the condition they would have been in? Yes an urban station would be black, but would a rural location?
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your comments guys, its much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI can see what you are all saying about the hut and because of the advise I have reworked it a little to remove much of the grot. I haven't taken it back to the same level as how the signal box looks at the moment though because I feel that it needed something to make it sit within the scenery instead of on to of it if that makes sense? Because of that the plan is to weather the signal box a bit more to blend it in with the shed / hut thing. I'm sorry if that goes against some of the advice but its how I feel looking at it. I will post some more photos which will hopefully show you all what I mean.
Thank you again.
Julia :o)
I always find recourse in questions like this to period photos. Whilst bricks will possibly wash cleaner due to rain or elbow grease (depending on type of brick) it's important to remember that the steam railway was a dirty place. The hut to me looks good. The 'box looks like it needs something to show a 57xx goes past every day - but only because the hut does.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the thing here is that both buildings look like they were built at roughly the same time, so should look roughly similar. I suspect if the signal box was weathered to the same degree we wouldn't be so worried the shed has been overdone.
DeleteNot to mention the space where the bars and cranks are, covered as it would be in grease and gunk, should have something! Mind you, easy from the cheap seats!!
DeleteHi, thanks for the comments.
DeleteThe plan is to weather the signal box to the same degree as the shed / hut (what is it called?) so I totally agree with you all on that side of things. I must admit when I did the shed / hut I did have the fact that it would be dirty from the oil and soot from the engines in mind. The challenge for me now is to match what I have done previously on the signal box!
J.
For me the hut is only slightly too grotty. As for the signal box, I don't think it's necessarily that it needs to be grottier, rather that it just needs toning down a bit (to my eye the brickwork on the signal box looks too orange). I've just been painting and weathering a bridge and a tunnel for Lightcliffe and at first I wasn't totally happy with the finish - a bit too dark and the varnish had dried with a slight sheen. Then I started messing around with some modelling dust (http://www.richardstacey.com/dust.html) brushing it over the model and that made all the difference - totally removed any residual shine from the paint and the varnish, made the colours less harsh and blended everything together.
ReplyDeleteThe water feature's looking better by the way ... maybe just need to make the water a little less blue?
Thank you David.
DeleteAs I mentioned on one of my previous replies the hut has now been reworked a bit and isn't quite as grotty as shown in the first picture. I think it looks alright now but I will post some more pictures once the signal box is done to match.
There really isn't that much blue in the water feature when you see it for real. I think that's a trick of the camera. Its much more greeny / brown.
Thanks for the link too, they are similar to what I have been using but I didn't think to use a red brick colour. I do find though that a grey powder is good at blending things together plus it has the advantage of toning down harsh colours too.
J.
You're welcome Julia.
DeleteA mix of the red brick and the grey might do the trick - I've just found a photo of the remains of the box online (http://www.brsince78.co.uk/1280.htm) and whilst it's in shade, it does seem to show a darker tone of brick.
At the end of the day though, it's what you're happy with that matters.
David
You are right David, the brickwork does look darker than the brickwork I have done for the signal box at the moment.
DeleteOf course though, the whole subject of scaling colour is another big kettle of worms! Its probably more pronounced in 2mm scale too.
J.
Julia,
DeleteIt probably goes against the norm, but I've always been of the view that if you go a couple of shades darker than the real thing then the model looks better for it ... but then again I've lived most of my life among the dark satanic mills of West Yorkshire where everything seems a bit dank and gloomy!
With 2mm you don't get the same sort of shadows you get in the larger scale - nooks and crannies are smaller, as of course is the surface that your working with, and everything sort of blurs and merges - and when I'm painting or weathering something I actually screw my eyes up while I'm doing it to shut out a bit of light and try and get the colour balance right.
I think as well colours are brighter today than they were 50 or 100 years ago. Paints and techniques have improved, the atmposphere isn't as polluted as it was and buildings have been cleaned. Paint fades with time, I know, but if something's got a patina of dirt it's going to look darker than it would if it was clean.
Again, it's all down to personal preference, but to me a subtly coloured building looks far better than one that's vibrantly coloured. Yes, have the odd splash of colour (like a post box set into a wall) but try and blend it in.
There, that's let a few worms out of the kettle!
David
Hi Julia
ReplyDeleteI think the shed looks perfectly weathered and that the Signal box now needs weathering.
Does the shed have glazing?
if not I feel glazing will add to it.
Hi Steve, I hope you are good?
DeleteThe shed / hut thing has got glazing but as there is no light inside it is difficult to see through them. I totally see your point and I agree that its not really beneficial. You know me though, I try and make things as close to the prototype as I can!
J.
Your natural instinct to want the buildings to sit in with the rest of the scenery is the right one in my opinion. In the end it is what you feel comfortable with that counts.
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right there! I think that's why I did the weathering to that degree in the first place. OK, so I overdid it a bit but it sat well in the landscape. The comments and replies on here though have been invaluable though to help me try and get things that little bit more realistic.
DeleteJ.
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ReplyDeleteHi Julia, just catching up on what's been happening :) The box does look very good, its subtle tones make it blend into the palette of the landscape nicely. I agree with some of the posters above, a slight reworking of the weathering on the shed would be something to consider. Working the weathering into the features of the shed, under the window sill and under the roof without the large patches of grime on the walls. I think it might actually improve the signal box as the contrast between the two buildings will be less.
ReplyDeleteThe landscape around the stream with the turf erosion where cattle (?) have passed is superb. I've a few fields with stream crossings near my place in Wales and this really captures that look.
Hi Alan. Nice to hear from you again, sorry for the late reply though, I have been away for a few days and haven't been able to reply until now.
DeleteHopefully you have seen my reworking of the shed and signal box in the next post? I took on the advice people kindly gave me and tried to match the two buildings and I am now very happy with the results. I didn't really want any part of the layout to stand out and I think I have achieved it so far.
The idea I had in mind when I did the bit around the water feature was as if cattle had churned up the land around a crossing place so I am glad that's what you thought.
Thank you for the comment.
J.